34 urns. "A man must have a place to lay his head," the Times commented, "and if Zog feels that he must have sixty rooms to do it in, that is his business." Zog, it was announced, intended to turn Knollwood into his kingdom in exile. In its grounds would live Alba- nian subjects, working the land as his tenants. North Shore society, delighted at the prospect of royalty in its back yard, was soon flocking to Knollwood. At its gates, visitors were greeted by a bearded member of the Royal Guard: he would kiss their hands and turn them away. Alas, Zog wanted to settle into the mansion with his entire court, of a hundred and fifteen, but the immigra- tion authorities would allow him to bring only twenty into the country. At- tempts to bribe the State Department failed, and in 1952 he was forced to pay $2,914 in taxes to save his property, having been unable to convince Nassau County that as a monarch he had sov- ereign immunity from such trifles. In 1955, he sold Knollwood, which had meanwhile suffered eight thousand dollars' worth of damage from van- dals. The vandals thereupon con- verged on the estate in earnest, ripping it apart in search of treasure that was rumored to be buried in its grounds. ..': =:.:-:-:. .- ....... ... '!-' ';., " , " Ø^" , -:-"J' . '_n \ J\ v ,'* -, ' NO, The mansion was later demolished, and Zog spent his last days in a nearly empty villa on the French Riviera, with Queen Geraldine doing the housework. He died in 1961. In 1968, Nassau County acquired what was left of Knollwood and incorporated it into the Muttontown Preserve, a five-hundred -and -fifty-acre wilderness featuring some eighty kinds of trees and over a hundred varietIes of flowering plants. On our arrival there, instead of being received by a bearded guard we were confronted by a sign warning us to beware of ticks. We rolled down our shirtsleeves and chose the least circuitous of many dirt trails leading to the ruins. Half an hour later, we arrived at a sunken garden in front of Knollwood's gray stone foundation. The stones were marred by graffiti: "SEX + DRUGS + RocK-N-RoLL" and, fittingly, what appeared to be a crown. Strewn amid the ivy were broken bricks, chunks of balustrade, and large fragments of capstones. Huge niches flanked im- mense, mud-choked flights of steps leading down to a chipped but still distinctly cherubic fountain. In our mind's eye we could see Zog survey- ing his domain from the terrace at the top of the steps, wearing, of course, ."...- -- ---.. " .. , ' tit ^ .......(; %r,"", " < .,' .',\.,. ..". "':-? ':"' "l' . ..f' <>Jf})>, ." :,:.: \" v':.' ... SøY\. . x, x 'J<>m <<>>" {,'<, " , " "" J , ,t.;,: (i' 0 , <,' ," in ., "" .# " " .... " =::/,.;' """,M. ;--" , , .",' '."." >>-' .,. "''I' , tJûIr AJ4&AV- tl FALL- CATALOGUE I Your choi e. 3 , >< :'"x;:." <'" :: þ 'I(^ ..;.x þ -::::::: I .* .Co o&v> ",,> fl: 00'>= '* r...:s < , .<^' t 1 J v ^ '<> ... i.vl' ... .-" 1 ""'_ ' ":) _' .. X ;. .. "*'.: ';' h . ' 'O , ,'f;>} JlrZ. d; , SEPTEMBER 11, 1989 his rose-colored breeches and gold spurs. Two pavilions stood beyond the main building. Their columns and entablatures were intact, but their roofs had caved in, burying the bases of the col umns in masses of stone, concrete, and jagged metal lathing. A pile of charred branches and empty beer bot- tles further littered one of the struc- tures. Between the pavilions were steps descending to a curved allée of trees and ivy, beyond which we could see the remains of a summerhouse. That was the place, we decided, where if things had turned out differently King Zog would have stopped late in the after- noon, after a day of court engagements, to smoke a perfumed cigarette. The Wedding I> A BRIDEGROOM writes: When we decided to get mar- ried after being together for twelve years, we felt that a formal or tradi- tional wedding ceremony would not be appropriate. But when we told our families, friends, and acquaintances that we planned to get married in a civil ceremony in the Municipal Build- ing the typical reaction (after a tire- some number of "It's about time"s) was "How unromantic." We did not agree. We found the idea of the two of us stealing away to marry in semi-secrecy extremely ./ romantic. If onl y we had ., been as misunderstood as the young lovers of the great teen anthems! But both of us were thirteen years past even the last year of teenhood. And our par- ents approved of the union We met during our third year of college, and our years together raced by. We never talked much about formalizing our rela- tionship (was a piece of paper supposed to change something?), and never un- derwent pressure from ei- ther set of parents. The on- ly times we mentioned mar- riage were when we dis- cussed having children, and then we just concluded that if we ever did want to have them marriage would prob- \ \ \ t <